It’s hard to work with family. More specifically, with your sister.

My 22-year-old sister Kallie does not work at The Daily Leader, but the two of us form a singing duo, Clementine. I write the music and inspirational lyrics for the country/bluegrass sound, and Kallie and I do the singing. We love it.

However, we’re hardheaded, to say the least. Both of us. I want my way and she wants her way, and since we’re family, there are no niceties that have to be observed. I want the song sung one way, and she likes the way she sings it, and we’re both right, and nobody’s gonna change our minds. We’ll fight all the way up until we have to perform, and then nobody even knew anything happened off the stage.

We drive my poor mama crazy the way we brawl and then two minutes later, we’re laughing and everything is OK again. She just can’t understand it, and we can’t understand mulling over something for so long.

Daddy always says, “They may be not be right, but they’re never in doubt.”

I think he’s speaking from personal experience, perhaps where Kallie and I get our strong wills. However, we love to sing. And we love each other. That’s where we come together and make music.

Music has been running strong in my veins since I was born. Daddy always played Otis Redding and MoMo always played Alabama, so I can’t help but write soulful, southern music. Alison Krauss was my favorite as an adolescent, so a bluegrass touch has to be in there somewhere, too.

I’m not the only one who writes the lyrics for our songs; Daddy does, too. I’ve always known he was a good writer, but was pleasantly surprised with one of the first songs he gave me, “Old Barns and Southern Belles.” A piece of the lyrics says, “You can find them down country byways, they seem to grow up from the land. They fit just right in the southern landscape, like they’re planted by God’s own hand.”

Most of my songs are an outpouring of my personal experiences. Some are prayers, some are love songs and some are an expression of my feelings during troubled times.

However, the main goal of our music is to bring glory to Jesus. We sing a lot in church and hope soon to begin singing in many churches. We know where our gifts come from and Who to give them back to.

My favorite song I’ve written is called “Walk With You,” although I can’t really take the credit for it because it was a prayer – a cry of my heart that the Lord gave me. My sister and I have learned that when we use our talents for God, He blesses it and puts music in my heart to share with others.

I was telling Daddy the other day, “I don’t just want to sing. I HAVE to sing.” It’s a part of me that cannot be separated or I wouldn’t be whole. A lot of doors have been closed for my sister and me this past year, but we believe more doors will open. When you have to do something, you have to do it. We just want to sing.

I play a little piano, and Kallie plays a little guitar – not tiny instruments but the capacity in which they are played. I use the guitar occasionally for songwriting, but even my sister gets aggravated when I’m trying to teach her a song and it takes me forever to switch chords. We’ll just say our voices are our main instruments.

The name “Clementine” means merciful, not to mention it just sounds really southern. Good wholesome, southern music is not dead in our book.

Lifestyles Editor Jessica Boyd can be reached at The Daily Leader at 601-833-6961 ext. 134, by email at jessica.boyd@dailyleader.com or you can write to her at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven MS 39602.